Head-mounted displays are widely used in gaming and training applications. Such head-mounted displays typically use electronically controlled displays mounted on a pair of glasses or a helmet with supporting structures such as ear, neck, or head pieces that are worn on users' heads. Displays are built into the glasses together with suitable optics to present electronic imagery to the users' eyes. In one prior-art head-mounted display, a transparent or partially transparent display area permits a user to view the real world through the transparent display area while projectors affixed to the display area project information visible to the user onto the display area. In another design, information visible to the user is projected onto an opaque display area to provide an immersive display system independent of scenes in the real world.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,095 describes a device with the head-mounted display or augmented reality display in a glasses format where image information is presented within the lens areas of the glasses. The lens areas of the glasses in this patent include waveguides to carry the image information to be displayed from an image source, with a built-in array of partially reflective surfaces to reflect the information out of the waveguide in the direction of the user's eyes. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20070237491 presents a head-mounted display that can be changed between an opaque mode where image information is presented and a see-through mode where the image information is not presented and the display is transparent. This mode change is accomplished by a manual switch that is operated by the user's hand or a face muscle motion. This head-mounted display is either opaque or fully transparent.
Some information display devices provide a gaze-tracking capability that can detect the direction of a user's gaze relative to the head-mounted device or display. It is also known to determine a location of a receiver by using a directional antenna and circuits for determining signal strength. However, such devices do not provide a way to determine what a user is viewing through a transparent display.
Mobile communication devices having displays are well known, for example, cell phones and smart phones that include digital cameras and access to cellular telephone services. Such cellular telephone services provide both voice communication and access to computer networks such as the internet. Mobile communication devices can include global positioning service (GPS) circuits that provide the location of the device on the earth's surface. The mobile communication devices can also include orientation detectors that provide an orientation signal indicating the orientation of the device with respect to the force of gravity or the center of the earth. The orientation signal then provides input to display circuitry that controls the mobile communication device display, for example, so that a user viewing the display in either portrait or landscape mode can view information appropriately displayed on the display. Thus, the absolute location and orientation of the mobile communication device can be determined. However, in the absence of specific location and orientation information with respect to a scene, the relative location and orientation of the mobile communication device with respect to the scene is not determined.
A wide variety of services are provided for mobile cellular communication devices. For example, users can search websites on the internet for information on any of a variety of desired topics (e.g. restaurants) relevant to the geographical location of the mobile communication device. The geographic location can be provided, for example, by user input or from a GPS location signal. It is also known to search the internet for images matching an image acquired by a digital camera integrated into a mobile communication device and retrieve information related to the image, for example through the Google Goggles application. Using such services, a user can use a digital camera integrated into his or her mobile communicator to take a picture of an object in the user's vicinity and then search the internet for information related to the object. However, if the view is not distinctive or a comparable image is not found in a search, no information is provided.
Mobile communication devices can be used to enable interactive commerce. For example, auction bidding by telephone has been practiced for many years. More recently, wireless communicators have been proposed for conducting commercial activities. U.S. Pat. No. 7,200,566 entitled “Method and system for local wireless commerce” describes a system and method of conducting commercial activities such as an auction in a rather localized area (such as a shopping mall). Potential consumers located in the local area have a mobile wireless communications device (for example, a smart cellular phone or a 2-way radio or a Bluetooth communication device) including a set of stored instructions allowing the device to be programmed with a set of desired transactions and preferences such as the brands or transaction types which the consumer prefers. Merchants are connected to receive a communication from the communications device and respond to the desired transaction and preferences by proposing goods or services at specific terms such as price. The mobile wireless communications device associated with the potential consumer has the potential to receive communications from merchants (either directly or through an intermediate system) and to transmit a communication back to the merchant indicating the potential offer so that a merchant can revise or improve the offer. In this way, local merchants can be aware of the offers that a consumer receives and can improve on those offers to secure the potential consumer's business. While the actual transaction may be conducted in person at a merchant's establishment, one can envision a system where the transaction is completed through the wireless communication system with the payment occurring through charge or other electronic transaction and the delivery of the goods or service through conventional delivery channels.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,870,022 entitled “System and method for offering and fulfilling situation-based, location specific rewards and offers to mobile-oriented consumers” discloses a system, method and computer-readable medium for advertising and completing a transaction using a credit card or a debit card. The method includes receiving situation information at a device, based on the situation information, transmitting an advertisement to the device, associating an advertisement with an identification card such as a debit card, credit card, student ID card, biometric data, or club card, and receiving an indication of a purchase associated with the advertisement and completed using the card. The disclosure enables a user to receive an advertisement on a device such as a mobile device and then make a purchase decision based on that advertisement in a normal fashion or transparent to the user and sales clerk, without the use of coupons, special codes or any other additional and annoying requirements for making the purchase. The user only needs to use an appropriate identification card. The merchant for the clerk at a point of sale handles the transaction in a standard fashion. The user can then receive a confirmation of a discount for the transaction on the consumer mobile device and later receive a rebate on an identification card statement.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,414 entitled “Method, system and computer readable medium for web site account and e-commerce management from a central location” teaches a method, system, and computer readable medium for managing a financial transaction of a user at a merchant including authenticating the user via a device of the user while the user is at the merchant transmitting activation information for activating a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number of the user from the user device to a financial institution for processing financial transactions, while the user is authenticated; submitting a payment request including the account number to the financial institution from the merchant while the account number is activated; and de-activating the account number after the payment request is processed by the financial institution. The financial institution only accepts and processes payment requests received from merchants while the account number is activated, and the financial institution declines payment requests while the account number is de-activated.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,711,598 entitled “Web-based consumer product marketing communication network for managing and delivering consumer product marketing communications to consumers along e-commerce (EC) enabled web sites on the world wide web (WWW), using multi-mode virtual kiosks (MMVKS) driven by server-side components embodying consumer product identifiers and driven by consumer product information (CPI) links managed by product manufacturer team members and/or their agents” describes a Web-based consumer product marketing communication network for managing and delivering consumer product marketing communications to consumers along E-Commerce (EC) enabled Web sites on the World Wide Web (WWW). The network employs one or more Web-based Multi-Mode Virtual Kiosks (MMVKs), each having a plurality of independently programmable display modes, for displaying one or more advertising spots, one or more promotional spots, and a set of consumer product information (CPI) resources through its Web-based graphical user interface (GUI). The network also includes a database server for storing and managing a CPI link structure for each MMVK deployed on the network. Each CPI link structure includes a consumer product identifier assigned to the corresponding consumer product, and a set of URLs specifying the location of a plurality of CPI resources located on the WWW. Members of product management team use the set of URLs to program the programmable display modes of each MMVK. By virtue of the MMVK-driven communication network of the present invention, consumer product management teams can now consistently deliver to product information and brand messaging to consumers along electronic streams of commerce
U.S. Pat. No. 7,610,233 entitled “System, method and article of manufacture for initiation of bidding in a virtual trade financial environment” discloses a system, method and article of manufacture provided for initiating bidding in a virtual trade financial environment. First, a form is submitted to a plurality of buyers providing details on products or services available from a plurality of sellers. This is to prompt the submission of bids on the products or services. The bids are then received from the buyers utilizing a network. Thereafter, the bids are categorized based on a predetermined criterion. The categorized bids are subsequently sent to the sellers utilizing the network. Offers are then received from the sellers in response to the bids utilizing the network. The offers are displayed to the buyers for closing transactions between the buyers and the sellers.